The chicken wing is a meaningful cultural symbol. The chicken wing is an excuse for a goofy road trip. The chicken wing is just what it is: Everyone’s favorite bar food, especially in Upstate New York.

Wingmaster and chef Columbus Marshall Grady of Abigail's in Seneca Falls came up with the Bleu Bayou wing sauce featured in the documentary "The Great Chicken Wing Hunt."Jennifer Meyers

The serio-comic film follows the adventures of an odd assortment of Upstate New Yorkers, accompanied by a Slovakian film crew, on the search for the worlds’ best Buffalo-style chicken wings. Oh, and there’s a love story, sort of.

Reynolds shot the movie in 2007, primarily in New York state – with many scenes filmed in places like Syracuse, Auburn, Waterloo and Watertown.

Now Reynolds is coming back. He’s bringing the film to the Palace Theatre in Eastwood at 4 p.m. Sunday for a Syracuse screening, followed by a Q&A. (Details below). It launches on Hulu next week.

The timing is good: This year is the 50th anniversary of the invention of the hot wing at Buffalo’s Anchor Bar, and the Syracuse screening is the week before the Super Bowl, perhaps the greatest wing-eating day on the annual calendar.

Matt Reynolds, right, and Ben Beavers, sample wings at Daddabo's in Auburn during the filming of "The Great Chicken Wing Hunt" in 2007. Reynolds, a native of Wayne County, directed the film, while Beavers was one of the team that helped in the search for the world's best wings. Jim Commentucci / Post-Standard file photo

Upstate New York is the heart of what Reynolds calls the “wing belt,” which encompasses, in his mind, all of New York state, a tiny piece of Pennsylvania (around Erie), and a sliver of Canada..

So the team of wing hunters at the center of the movie conduct their search exclusively in New York state (with one minor side trip to Canada). And they are mainly looking for real authentic Buffalo-style wings, not novelty flavors (though they do attempt to add a novelty category midway through the hunt).

“This is the area, probably because it’s close to Buffalo, where the wing was invented, that is known for every corner bar and restaurant having their own take on wings,” Reynolds said. "Upstate is where people put thought into the sauce, beyond just mixing Frank's Red Hot (hot sauce) and butter."

Central New York provides the meaty middle of the film. And, after sampling wings at 284 different stops over a 3-week period, the hunters narrow down the choice for the top wing honors to two locations, both in Central New York.

The sauces are the key to these choices: At Shifty’s it’s because the wing sauces – like the super hot “F Bomb” sauce – are made entirely from scratch (in the movie by a former cook named Freedom Robbins). At Abigail’s, chef Columbus Marshall Grady concocted a mixture that combines the hot sauce, blue cheese and celery flavors. (See Sean Kirst's profile).

The film doesn’t take itself too seriously. Near the start, a patron at Buffalo’s annual wing fest looks directly into the camera.

“We eat the part of the chicken they throw away,” he says. “The chicken couldn’t even use it.”

Later, a member of the film crew tells director Matt Reynolds: “You’re giving America what it needs most,” he says in Slovak. “Wings as part of the American identity.”

But the key takeaway may be Reynolds’ view of the Upstate New York self-image. A key non-wing scene shows one of the wing hunters, a Kodak employee from Rochester, watching the planned implosion of one of the film company’s vacant former buildings.

“It (Upstate) is really a part of the country that is in decline,” Reynolds says in the film. “There’s really not much to be proud of here.”

Except, the film seems to say, chicken wings.

DETAILS

What: Screening of “The Great Chicken Wing Hunt,” a documentary by Wayne County native Matt Reynolds. A Q&A with Reynolds follows the film, along with an appearance by former Shifty’s Bar cook Freedom Robbins.

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